Player Kings
Noël Coward theatre, London
He makes a radically moving Falstaff in Robert Icke's handsome production of the two joined-up history plays, turning Shakespeare's embodiment of rude life - the carnal and carnivalesque - inside out.
McKellen's Falstaff is a rich portrayal: tragic almost from the start, not so much carnivalesque as carnival grotesque and wheeler-dealer, wheezing, adenoidal and dyspeptic a pub drunk in soiled shirt and braces.
The humour is delivered drily. "What is honour?" he says when called to the Battle of Shrewsbury, and it sounds less pragmatic than philosophical and plaintive.
This story is from the April 12, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
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This story is from the April 12, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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